Going Up!: A Color Counting Book

by Peter Sís

As the elevator moves up from the first floor to the twelfth, various people dressed in different colors get on

Genres: Picture Books, Counting

Hardcover

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

PETER SÍS is an internationally acclaimed illustrator, filmmaker, painter and author. Born in 1949 in Brno, Czechoslovakia, and grew up in Prague. He studied painting and filmmaking at the Academy of Applied Arts in Prague and the Royal College of Art in London. His animated work is in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art. He came to America in 1982, and now lives in New York's Hudson Valley with his family. Peter Sís is the first children's book artist to be named a MacArthur Fellow. In 2012 he won The Hans Christian Andersen Award.

His many distinguished books include Starry Messenger: Galileo Galilei, Tibet: Through the Red Box, Madlenka, Rainbow Rhino, The Tree of Life: Charles Darwin, The Wall: Growing Up Behind the Iron Curtain, and The Conference of the Birds.

Reviews

[Michelle Farella · Rating 4 out of 5]

Counting and colors!

[Lynn Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This story starts in black and white until the characters appear. A girl buys a bouquet of flowers and gets into an elevator of a high rise apartment building. At each floor someone in costume gets on, each holding something special. The reader can count them each time. When the girl gets off at the top floor, ten others are with her. Cute surprise ending.

[Aramis · Rating 3 out of 5]

The ending is a little abrupt but this is a cute colors and counting book of a girl traveling on an elevator with some surprising companions on her way to what turns out to be a surprise birthday party.

[June · Rating 3 out of 5]

Used in an outreach MLK/Birthday program for 2's and 3's. It is a simple birthday, color, counting story of everyone getting on an elevator to go up to a surprise, birthday party.

[Timothy · Rating 4 out of 5]

The characters and concept are great. A reader mentioned that the ending is abrupt, I agree, but I don't necessarily feel let down by it. I do prefer Peter Sis' more recent titles.